School’s in Session!

I’ll post their first day pictures later, but I just wanted to pop in and make note that we have officially begun our 2012/2013 school year. It went pretty well, all things considered! Some things to smooth out, namely, WHAT DO I DO WITH THIS TWO YEAR OLD??? But, we’ll get it all sorted out. Everybody ended the day with a smile on their face, and that’s what matters.

As I have been preparing our year these last few weeks, it occurred to me, that some of you might be interested in what curriculum I use– anybody? If not, you have permission to slip out early on this post. It’s okay not to be riveted by the minutia of my life. Ha!

I started this homeschooling journey using Abeka. My sister-in-law homeschooled at the time, and she would loan me the teacher’s guides and student materials every year. Big bonus! I used Abeka exclusively for many years, but as I got more comfortable, I felt like I could branch out a little bit. And to be honest, as we got into the higher grades, Abeka didn’t fit us in every subject anymore. But, I still love it for the early years, and that’s what my 2nd grader and kindergartner use. Although, with my kindergartner, I have also added in Explode the Code this year.

But I didn’t toss Abeka entirely– my 7th grader still uses it for literature, grammar, science, and health. My 4th grader uses it for language, reading, science, and health.

Besides those subjects though, we’ve got a variety of curriculum. It’s Story of the World for us for History. Love it! For Bible, we use God’s Great Covenant. It’s really great. We also read a chapter of a missionary book from the series, Christian Heroes: Then and Now. We’re in Corrie Ten Boom’s story right now. Riveting stuff! This often turns into a history lesson as well.

We made a change in math this year to Teaching Textbooks. One lesson in, and the kids are raving over it. We’ll see how the year goes before I say if this will stick or not. For spelling, we use Spelling Power and the Getty-Dubay method for handwriting. Typing comes courtesy of Garfield.

There will be other supplementary things along the way, but those are the ones on the schedule at the moment.

So, there you have it. I’ll get to our actual first day post by the end of the week– I really do love comparing their photos every year. Such a nice little tradition. 🙂 Y’all have a good night. Im tucking in early. It’s a school night, ya know.

Amy, the description of the course says it’s presented at a second grade level, but that is just NOT the case. The teachers guide has additional passages that I use at times to flesh out an idea/concept further and that is MORE than enough to keep us engaged. Really miscatergorized- more like 5-6th– and they’d still be challenged plenty. I have no trouble making this appropriate for both Wrenn AND Eli. This book has been a great tool for their spiritual development, and mine! I def recommend.

Ooh, I started using Teaching Textbooks with my 4th grader this year and she LOVES it so far! In fact, today she told me that she was going to do all of the practice questions and regular so that she could do a “bonus round” for extra points. I’m all about that!